In the Wake of the News

UConn ends Notre Dame's home winning streak at 45

SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Notre Dame had so much going for it Saturday night.

The head of the Vatican's Congregation for the Causes of Saints was in attendance at the Joyce Center, as was ESPN's Digger Phelps, who probably likes his chances.

The Fighting Irish's 45-game home winning streak was no small matter either. With the crowd roaring, the arena sounded like the middle of a tornado, and the whole idea was the Irish would huff and puff and blow No. 3 Connecticut out of the gym.

But you're not going to beat UConn if you can't shoot. That sounds like a sentence out of a remedial basketball textbook, but it's true. The Irish looked like they either hadn't touched a basketball in months, or else they were wearing oven mitts. Kyle McAlarney, normally a gunner, was especially off, hitting just 3 of 15 shots.

He, Zach Hillesland, Ryan Ayers and Luke Zeller were a combined 7 of 36 from the floor.

Only Luke Harangody, who had 24 points on 10-for-23 shooting, was a threat. When it's late in the game and four of your better players can't shoot, you're in serious trouble.

Some of that was UConn's defense, but most of it had to do with the Irish's inability to find the bottom of the net. The result was lots of missed open shots and a 69-61 loss.

Too bad. No. 19 Notre Dame had a chance to prove to doubters it's worthy of the national attention it has garnered. And too bad, because the Huskies had given the Irish all the motivational fuel a team would ever need.

On the cover of ESPN The Magazine's college basketball preview issue was a quote from UConn's 7-foot-3-inch Hasheem Thabeet: "I played Luke Harangody, and he was not tough."

These comments didn't come in a vacuum. The question was whether the UConn players were only verbalizing what lots of people were thinking around the country. Were the Irish a bunch of phonies? Or, to put it more kindly, were they a product of whatever good vibes the Joyce Center produces? It was on this floor in this month 35 years ago that Notre Dame ended UCLA's 88-game winning streak. What the Irish were shooting for Saturday night was nothing so momentous. They just wanted a little love.

They didn't get it. They've lost three games in a row, they're 12-6 and likely are doing a little soul-searching to go along with their shot searching.

"I wouldn't say we're overrated," Hillesland said. "We've played a very difficult schedule. I don't know how many teams have gone through this kind of streak where you're playing ranked teams night in and night out. We're already in the [NCAA] tournament, it feels like. You're playing tournament-atmosphere games."

When UConn took a 45-35 lead on Craig Austrie's three-pointer five minutes into the second half, it looked as if the Huskies' superior talent finally was starting to overwhelm the Irish. But then Harangody took over, as stars are supposed to do. He hit a three-pointer, took a charge, waved his arms to get the crowd pumped up, got an assist, pulled down two rebounds and drove past Thabeet for a layup. And just like that it was 47-43. A jumper and a layup by Harangody would pare Connecticut's lead to 49-47.

"I thought we had it right there, to be honest -- one of those Joyce Center runs right there where we give them that punch and they fall down," Harangody said. "But they got back up and went on a good run."

Yes, but that run wouldn't have meant so much if the Irish could have hit some shots. Watching McAlarney trying to locate his touch was like watching a college football star getting passed over on draft day. It was painful.

"I had some great looks that I think if I had knocked them down would have changed the whole climate of the game," he said.

The Irish played strong defense, holding the Huskies to 40.7 percent shooting. But no matter what the most intense, defense-oriented coach says, you still have to shoot the ball to win basketball games.

As for the Huskies' comments leading up to the game, they shot 1-for-2. Adrien was right: They did have fun breaking the Irish's 45-game victory streak, which included 20 Big East victories but only four victories over ranked teams. Adrien, by the way, is a man. He had 19 rebounds.

And Thabeet, who had nine points and 11 rebounds, was wrong. Harangody grabbed 15 rebounds to go with his 24 points. Is that tough enough, Hasheem?

The Irish have no time to rest. They play host to Marquette on Monday, then go to Pitt on Saturday.

If they don't start shooting soon, they're going to find themselves out of the Top 25. And people might start referring to Notre Dame as a football school again.